The ICSH General Assembly October 2024 in Montpellier, France
The ICSH General Assembly was held in Montpellier over 2 days (8-9 October 2024) and attended by over 60 members and invited guests.
The ICSH sincerely thanks HORIBA for hosting the meeting and for their most generous hospitality. The Assembly was a great success and provided an opportunity for all ICSH members to get an overview of the past year’s activities, and plans for the next.
Before proceeding with the update, I wish to thank Dr Paul Harrison for his service and dedication to the ICSH having served 2-terms (6 years) on the Board. With Paul’s term on the Board having concluded, the ICSH thanks will be seeking expression of Interest from the haematology community for a replacement.
At the General Assembly, participants learnt of the recent achievements of the ICSH with eight publications in 2024 and 15 projects currently underway. The HbA 2 certified reference material project has been completed with low and high CRMs now available. The CD34 guidance and immunodifferential project are also complete and under review for publication. Over the past 12-months, members of the ICSH had given presentations at the International Society for Laboratory Hematology (France), Laboratory Medicine Congress & Exhibition (LMCE2024, Korea) and ECAT Foundation congresses.
The General Assembly received updates on many of the projects currently underway, including thromboelastography, measurement of uncertainty, laboratory developed tests, guidance for malaria testing, standardization of monocyte morphology and revisions to the 2008 bone marrow guidance document.
New project proposals which will be progressing to the development of guidance documents were also discussed. These include areas such as platelet clumping, acquired haemophilia A, laboratory measurement of emicizumab and other non-replacement therapies for Haemophilia and PT / APTT measurement.
Approval was also given for a 3-day morphology education symposium which will be held in Perth (24-26 November 2025). Although the focus will be education for low and income and resource constrain countries, all are welcome. Further details will be on this ICSH webpage.
Carol Briggs-Smalley award winners, Carly Olafson and Shinto Sugawara, and Dr Zi Ng (Sam Machin Award) gave excellent presentations outlining their projects.
ICSH Affiliate members gave updates to the General Assembly of their activities and we discussed relationships with the WHO and JCTLM.
Revision of the ICSH Constitution is close to completion and will soon be one the website.
Consideration is being given to individual (as well as Corporate and Affiliate) membership - details to follow.
Thanks to all participants and presenters who made the General Assembly a success.
We look forward to a constructive year ahead and hearing more updates at the 2025 General Assembly in Chicago. If you would like further information about the General Assembly, please contact the ICSH through the website or via email (admin@icsh.org).
With best wishes to all,
Professor Wendy Erber
Chair, ICSH Board
